


Getting to Know You

by RosieLynn



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: 1940s, Canon Compliant, Canon Gapfiller, F/M, Jalice, JaliceWeek20, Light Angst, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27128579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieLynn/pseuds/RosieLynn
Summary: In the hours after meeting, Jasper and Alice take some time to get to know each other.Jalice Week 2020 Day 3: Canon Gapfillers
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale
Kudos: 14





	Getting to Know You

Rain sputters against the window, causing the rickety old shutters to groan under its force. Despite the chill, the fireplace on the edge of the room remains unlit, the cold not affecting the two vampires occupying the room.

Alice perches on the edge of the bed, legs crossed delicately, gazing at her counterpart with fondness in her eyes. Jasper stands across the room, looking upon the small woman with hesitation and uncertainty.

They’ve been like this for twenty minutes, and Alice is about to break. Laughter pushes past her lips and she dissolves into giggles.

“You don’t have to stand so far away, you know. I don’t bite.” And although her tone is light, her words carry truth. With her visions to guide her, Alice stayed safely north, far away from the horrific vampire wars of the South. She never had to experience the carnage, the distrust, the terror.

Jasper did.

In fact, for the first many decades of his new life, it was all he knew.

So while she wishes he would collapse in her arms and allow himself to be held by her, she gives him his space. After all, only one of them has been in love with the other for the past twenty-eight years.

The blond vampire tucks his hands into his pockets, lifting his eyes to look into hers. There’s a measure of honesty there that catches her off guard. “I can tell.”

Alice scrunches her face in confusion. He has no reason to trust her words…so why would he accept them so easily, if not because he loves her too?

Her hope flares.

Jasper smiles hesitantly then, and it’s the most beautiful sight she’s ever seen. “I have a gift of my own. I can feel people’s emotions.”

Alice wonders if she should feel embarrassed. For anyone else, the subject of your affections discovering your unrequited love would be completely humiliating. But for her, it brings a sort of comfort and excitement. He knows she loves him, and he’s not running away.

A small smile spreads across Alice’s face. “Well, then, I guess you already know quite a bit about me.”

“Not as much as you know about me,” he counters, deciding momentarily to take a step in her direction, then choosing against making the movement. When he feels Alice’s disappointment, he can’t help but grin. “Sorry.”

But Alice just shrugs, retaining her usual positive nature. “You won’t stay over there much longer. I can wait.”

Again, a warm feeling spreads through him at her certainty. He takes a small step forward, very much enjoying her spike of happiness.

It’s been so long since he’s made someone happy.

Still beaming, Alice brings the conversation back to their previous topic. “So does it bother you that I know so much about you and you’ve only just met me?”

Jasper sees no point in lying. “Some. But if everything goes as you say it will—” at this, he can’t help but throw her a teasing look, “I’m guessing I’ll get to know you in time.”

Alice scoots further back onto the bed, her back hitting the wall. She pats the spot in front of her. “We have a lot of time right now.”

Jasper hesitates, mentally running through all the reasons he should _not_ join Alice on the bed. But Alice rolls her eyes, foreseeing each of his arguments and refuting them in kind.

“The bed is _not_ too small, you _know_ I’m not going to hurt you, and there’s no one around to care about propriety.”

The last argument though, gives her pause. Her eyes soften, and she extends a hand out invitingly, the picture of vulnerability and openness. Her emotions betray no fear, like he would expect. Because really, she _should_ be terrified of him.

“You’re not going to hurt me, Jasper. That’s not who you are.”

Like before, he feels her complete certainty. She believes this as fact. _But how can she,_ he wonders, _when the evidence of my violence is displayed so clearly all over my body?_

But she remains steadfast in her belief of his goodness, and he vows right then and there to strive to meet those expectations. For all eternity.

With blank eyes, she sees his choice, then breaks free from her vision, radiating pure joy. Jasper gives in to her emotions, her presence, and his own desires, and walks slowly to sit with her on the bed.

Smiling smugly, Alice tilts her head to the side. “What do you want to know?”

Although he already has a guess, Jasper starts with the obvious—how she knew to find him—and she confirms his hunch, though adds a detail he wasn’t expecting.

“You were the first thing I saw,” she states simply. “When I woke up alone, I had no idea where I was, _who_ I was, or what had happened to me. But I saw your face, and your smile, and felt security like I’d never felt before, and I knew one day, it would all be okay. And it was you, the exact scene of you that I saw earlier in the diner. Ruffled blue shirt, hair the color of honey, and different like me.” She pauses, looking down at her hands for a moment, indecision waging within her. Finally, the words escape her lips, so quiet that Jasper has to concentrate to hear. “It was you that helped me not be so afraid of myself, in the beginning. I thought, if such a good man is like me, then what’s there to be afraid of?”

Her confession floors Jasper, who swallows thickly. Her conclusion was wildly incorrect—how could a monster like him and a kind ray of sunshine like her _ever_ be comparable—but the fact that she found comfort in _him_ of all things…it stirs something in his heart he thought burned away long ago. The emotion is a little debilitating, and he quickly tries to steer the conversation to a safer topic.

“How did you escape The Volturi’s notice if you had no one to guide you? Newborns aren’t exactly known for their self-control…” At the reminder of his not-so-distant past, he holds back a flinch.

But Alice remains unbothered, continuing easily. “My visions. The thirst was definitely strong, overwhelming, even. But any time I decided to act on killing someone, a vision would warn me that it would lead to my death. I eventually figured out that I could avoid those results if I was discrete, so I learned to hunt farther from town and bury my food when I was done with it. Once I knew the rules, the thirst became a lot easier to navigate.”

She sees his next question, and smiles. “Yes, it’s the same reason I knew to stick to the northern part of the continent. I didn’t exactly know what was going on, but I knew my presence in the South would result in my death.”

The image of Alice, delicate, sweet Alice, caught up in the wars for territory causes him to clench his jaw against a snarl.

Then, the image of dismembering and burning Alice, as he would have done without question, causes him to hang his head in shame.

Alice places a gentle hand on his shoulder, and it takes everything in him not to flinch away. He doesn’t want to hurt her like that.

“What is it?”

Through his self-loathing, he forces himself to speak. After all, she has a right to know who she’s comforting. “I was imagining you fighting in the wars…and I know I would have killed you.” Again, he clenches his jaw, feeling crushed under his shame and despair.

Alice surprises him by shaking her head.“If I had met you then, yes, you probably would’ve killed me. But if I didn’t have my visions,” she continues, louder now to speak over his anguished groan, “I would have been killed anyway. Or ran into you down the road and tried to kill you. Or never even met you at all. Or a thousand other outcomes.” When he refuses to look at her, she takes his chin, lifting it up so he has to confront her eyes. “Jasper, we are only together because of crazy, impossible, specific circumstances. In _any other reality,_ we wouldn’t have found each other, but in this one, we have! Can’t we just celebrate our miracle?”

And when he looks at her, _really_ looks at her, and allows her hope and happiness and certainty to wash over him, he can allow himself to relax. For once, he turns off the part of his brain that constantly cycles through the what-ifs and allows himself to be fully in the moment with this woman who, four hours ago, was a complete stranger.

So with a smile, he takes Alice’s hand in his. “I can do that.”

And they continue getting to know each other.


End file.
